Title: Assessment of in-depth content coverage by Indian universities' websites: end users' expectations versus perceptions

Authors: Bhim Sain Singla; Himanshu Aggarwal

Addresses: College of Engineering and Management, Punjabi University Neighbourhood Campus, Rampura Phul-151103 Punjab, India ' Department of Computer Engineering, Punjabi University, Patiala-147002 Punjab, India

Abstract: The websites created by the Indian universities mainly serve the purpose of advancing their mission and brand name by providing trouble-free online services and valuable academic information to their target users. However, it always remains a challenge to cater to the needs of its varied target users, i.e., faculty, students, parents, alumni, donors, trustees, etc. The current study aims to explore which of the contents influence users' perceptions most in the context of Indian universities' websites by way of importance-performance analysis (IPA) as the theoretical foundation. The field survey points out that every content item has its own importance in the viewpoint of end users. The main findings of this study underline the gaps between the experiences and expectations of end users towards the scope of information covered by Indian universities' websites, and suggest appropriate measures to plug these gaps. Therefore, the results of this study serve as guidelines for evaluating content coverage in a typical university website and understanding the extent to which the website could meet the expectations of its intended users. Besides, it will provide the web designers much needed information that can be used to construct or improve the websites of other universities.

Keywords: content categories; content items; effective websites; focus groups; India; importance performance analysis; IPA; university websites; higher education; content coverage; end users; user expectations; user perceptions; website content; web design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2016.079815

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2016 Vol.13 No.4, pp.489 - 540

Received: 01 Sep 2015
Accepted: 13 Dec 2015
Published online: 16 Oct 2016 *

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